Iceland Inspiration

June 1, 2015

In order to celebrate the 30th birthday of my other half Craig, we decided to go on an adventure to Iceland. We invited his mum and dad along, we spent three weeks touring New Zealand together in a campervan and so we knew we would get on well for a week in Iceland. We stayed in the centre of Reykjavik in an apartment at Room With A View.

On our first day we had a big Icelandic breakfast and we went out to explore. We walked down to the harbour and went inside the Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall. We walked to the Maritime Museum and went inside to warm up with a hot chocolate. After Tjornin and lunch at Bakari Sandholt we visited Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik's catherdral which you can see from most places as it is such a monumental building. We ventured to the top which was very windy but offered fantastic views of the city, the colourful buildings and the mountains in the distance.

On day two we decided to do a self-drive trip of the Golden Circle. As there were four of us it worked out cheaper to do the trip ourselves. We first visited Þingvellir National Park where two plates meet. Next stop was Geysir and then Gullfoss which was definitely a highlight of the trip though we did get caught in a heavy hailstorm. The weather in Iceland is so changeable, during our visit to Gullfoss there was perfect blue sky, then rain and a rainbow then a full on hailstorm. The guy at the car rental company recommended that we stop at Kerið, a huge crater which we walked around in the late afternoon sun.

Day three was spent whale watching although in all honesty I felt completely sea sick and only glimpsed a minke whale and some dolphins. This was more than made up for when later in the evening we sighted the magical northern lights. They danced over our heads in Reykjavik and we saw them in all their glory on a tour to the outskirts of the city.

After a busy few days we decided to spend the next day unwinding at the Blue Lagoon. It was such a surreal experience floating around in hot water while practically in a blizzard!

The next day we woke early to drive south. We visited three waterfalls including the mighty Skogafoss and the Eyjafjallajökull visitor centre. We watched a film about the eruption which affected the whole of Europe in 2010 and I practiced my pronunciation - "AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh". After, we drove on to the black sand beach at Vik.

Our last full day in Iceland was spent driving to Snæfellsjökull National Park and was probably our highlight. We had an unobscured view of the partial eclipse in the morning and then drove round the peninsula stopping at beautiful sights. The roads were quiet enough to stop right on the tarmac to take photos and the towns on the south of the peninsula were completely deserted for winter. We met some lovely ladies in a town on the north of the peninsula while we stopped for snacks who were so excited to tell us what we should stop to see en-route. It's so lovely to meet people that are so friendly and proud of where they're from.

As our flight was later in the day we had plenty of time to visit the shops, the art museum and have a lovely lunch at a vegetarian cafe before making our way to the airport.

Iceland was pure magic and I can't wait to return, in fact I loved it so much that I asked Craig if we could move there. The people were so wonderful, the landscapes incredible and we had some seriously great adventures.

Cornish Blossom

February 3, 2015

I started a new drawing on Sunday afternoon but suddenly felt inspired to paint and use the linen canvas that I had bought a few weeks before. The light was fading quickly so I dug out my old oil paints and found the paints and brushes that a friend from my MA gave me before he returned home to China.

I found a photograph that I took last spring on a trip to see my dad in Cornwall, pink blossom and blue sky. I mixed cadmium red with titanium white as a base for the painting before slowly adding in greens and browns. I used a stick of charcoal to scribble into the wet paint and to write on the linen itself. I built up a few layers of paint using thin washes and thick splodges of paint before wiping parts away to get the composition that I wanted. A gentle cascade of colour.

Cy Twombly is an artist that I've admired for a long time, the book Cycles and Seasons highlights his painting process. Swirling colours with scribbles and writing, beautiful painterly marks. Twombly has been a big influence on my perspective as an artist but his influence hasn't been particularly visable as I've been making detailed drawings in pen. With oil paint I've been able to channel artists like Cy Twombly and Tracey Emin as well as artists from the Impressionist movement.

This painting is 30cm x 30cm and is the first in a planned series of floral 'impressions'. It's my first attempt at painting since I gave it up in the second year of my BA in 2009 when I felt uninspired with paint and decided to focus on drawing. Since my MA I've realised that as an artist I don't need to specialise, I can have freedom to use any medium that fits my vision.

Tabula Rasa

January 4, 2015

Each year BA and MA students at Winchester School of Art are given the opportunity to exhibit at the Bargehouse which is a fantastic and unusual exhibition space on London's Southbank.

One of my highlights of 2014 was exhibiting my work at the space alongside fellow students in July. It was the first time I've exhibited in London and the first time in such an unusual space.

I decided to take four drawings of the Forest of Dean to exhibit, I'd been working on them for a couple of months prior to the exhibition and they'd not been exhibited before.

The woodland drawings were made in response to themes of childhood memory and my connection to the Forest of Dean.

I visited the Forest of Dean to take more photographs. I took the photographs from an alternative perspective, getting low to the ground and looking up. The trees loomed overhead and made me feel small, like a child lost.

I drew from the photographs utilising the technique of small circles and shapes to build an image. The slow and controlled method of drawing is a meditative process for me, allowing me time to reflect.

The detailed drawings displayed in frames contrasted with the exhibition space. The walls were full of character, peeling plaster, scratches and holes. They reminded me of a Cy Twombly painting.

The experience of travelling to London over a week to set up, invigilate and take down the exhibition was a rewarding one. The exhibition as a whole was very strong and allowed me to meet great artists from the BA and forge stronger bonds with my MA friends who participated.

The drawings can be found on the 'woodland' section on the drawings tab.